At 83, William Randolph Hearst had fallen hard for male society gossip columns.
Los Angeles society was apprehensive, and the Los Angeles Examiner's society staff was in a pout. Without consulting either group Hearst had ordered a newsy, nosy, plain-speaking society column called "Artie Angeleno Observes." Hearst's San Francisco Examiner already had a "Fred die Francisco." Both were patterned after the New York Journal-American's long standing "Cholly Knickerbocker." In Los Angeles, Hearst picked a newspaperman, and a social unknown at that, to do the job.
"Artie Angeleno" is green-eyed Jack (short for Jacquin...